Kyiv warned Monday of more power outages in the wake of another large-scale Russian attack on Ukrainian power plants, and after ramping up energy prices to rebuild the embattled sector.
Russian forces over the weekend targeted energy facilities in five regions and damaged two more thermal power plants in a barrage of more than one hundred drones and missiles, officials said.
“After six massive attacks on the power grid, there is a significant power shortage,” the Ukrainian energy ministry said on social media.
It said its engineers were working to repair damage but that the energy grid remained in a precarious state.
Ukraine has also increased imports from neighbouring EU countries to make up shortfalls from attacks.
“The periods of outages may increase. In particular, emergency blackouts were introduced in a number of regions on Sunday,” it added in the statement on Telegram.
Russia has launched hundreds of aerial attacks at Ukraine’s power facilities throughout the two-year war, causing significant damage and energy shortages.
Ukraine’s stretched air defences have struggled to repel the waves of drones and missiles.
Oleksandr Kharchenko, executive director at the Kyiv-based Energy Industry Research Center, warned at a press conference on Monday that the strikes meant Ukrainians would need to adapt.
“All we can do is get used to the fact that this is the normal state of affairs,” he said a press briefing, “for the next two years at least.”
But he said he did not foresee any “apocalypse” and that — despite outages — the country’s energy infrastructure would “survive.”
Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko announced the more than 60 percent price increase that came into effect last week, citing planned reconstruction that would cost “enormous efforts and funds.”
“The tariff increase is a difficult but necessary step,” he said in a statement. He earlier estimated damage to Ukrainian power plants would cost around $1 billion.
